Following our Board meeting yesterday, we are not proceeding with our original proposal on ‘direct.uk’ … It was clear from the feedback that there was not a consensus of support for the direct.uk proposals as presented, with some concerns cutting across different stakeholder groups.

Many of the defects they list were ones that I pointed out here and here – no particular credit for that claimed, as everyone to whom I have spoken made much the same points.

A little ominously Nominet continue:

As a result, we are going to explore whether it is possible to present a revised proposal that meets the principles of increasing trust and security and maintaining the relevance of the .uk proposition in a changing landscape. The Board plans to review progress at their June meeting, where they would decide whether there is an alternative option that addresses the concerns raised in the consultation. This would be subject to further consultation prior to any final decision being made.

Let’s hope that if a new proposal is presented, it is truly new rather than a warmed up version of the last proposal. In particular, let’s hope that increasing trust in .uk is dealt with separately from opening direct registrations under .uk as the two issues are entirely orthogonal. There were some small nuggets of goodness buried deep within the original proposal (support for DNSSEC for instance), so I’ve no objection to a well thought out replacement proposal (or better pair of proposals) being presented.